Trump criticizes expert's stance on virus spread

Officials across U.S. confront issues on schools’ reopening

President Trump speaks during a coronavirus briefing at the White House on July 30. 
 (Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford)
President Trump speaks during a coronavirus briefing at the White House on July 30. (Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford)

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Monday said White House coronavirus task force leader Dr. Deborah Birx "hit" the Trump administration with her remarks that widespread virus infections in urban and rural America mark a "new phase" for the pandemic.

Birx quickly garnered Trump's favor earlier this year for publicly championing the administration's coronavirus response, becoming a prominent figure inside and outside the White House.

But she lost support within swaths of the scientific and medical community that believed she was minimizing the virus and enabling Trump's view of the pandemic. Over the weekend, Birx drew criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who privately called Birx "the worst" and publicly said she had no confidence in the physician.

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On Monday morning, Trump tweeted his disapproval of Birx's comments.

"So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics," Trump wrote in a tweet. "In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!"

Trump was referring to Birx's grim assessment Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," in which she described the coronavirus as "widespread" across the nation and warned that the deadly contagion has infiltrated "rural and urban" areas.

In the interview, she also did not rule out the possibility that the nation's coronavirus death toll could double by the end of the year to 300,000 and seemed to suggest that, contrary to the president's stated desires, some schools should offer only distance learning this fall.

In a news conference Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, defended Birx's statements about the pandemic, pointing to "insidious" community spread.

To limit growth of the virus, states seeing an "insidious increase" in positive tests don't necessarily need to close down as tightly as they did early in the pandemic, according to Fauci. But he said they must intensify the push toward mask-wearing and other public health imperatives.

"It's in our hands," Fauci said, noting that he was pleased that Trump has been wearing a mask more in public. "We need more of that consistency," he said.

Fauci also said it might be a good idea for teachers to wear face shields if they return to the classroom, as tens of thousands of students across the nation resumed in-person schooling for the first time since March.

Fauci said data clearly shows children ages 10 to 19 can spread covid-19 as easily as adults, and that there is "a reasonable assumption" to be made that the high viral loads seen in some very young children means they, too, can transmit the virus, even though they're less likely to get seriously ill.

"Any mucosal surface is susceptible" to the virus, Fauci said in response to online questioning about face shields from Howard Bauchner, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

SCHOOLS' REOPENING

Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have urged schools to reopen. However, Fauci warned Monday that "There may be some areas where the level of virus is so high that it would not be prudent to bring the children back to school."

"So you can't make one statement about bringing children back to school in this country. It depends on where you are," he said.

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Children in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee are returning to school this week.

Many schools that are recommencing in-person instruction are also giving parents a stay-at-home virtual option. Other schools are planning a hybrid approach, with children alternating between in-person classes and online learning.

But an uptick in covid-19 cases in many states has prompted districts to scrap in-person classes at least for the start of the school year, including those in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington.

In Indiana, where schools reopened last week, a student at Greenfield-Central Junior High tested positive on the first day back to class and was isolated in the school clinic.

"This really does not change our plans," Superintendent Harold Olin said. "We knew that we would have a positive case at some point in the fall. We simply did not think it would happen on Day One."

Elsewhere in Indiana, Elwood Junior Senior High suspended in-person classes two days into the school year after at least one staffer tested positive.

In Newton County, Miss., fourth grader Avery Mangum returned to school for the first time in months to find many things changed: She had to wear a mask, sit in an assigned seat and eat in her classroom instead of in the cafeteria. When kids in her class moved around the school, they followed their teacher in a straight line with one arm sticking out in front of them to make sure they stayed at least an arm's length away from other kids.

The playground at Avery's school was split in two: Some kids could play on half of the equipment, and others on the other half, with only a certain number allowed in total.

"It was really hard to socially distance while we were at recess," she said. "Everyone wants to play with their friends and do all these things, but we can't."

Rachel Adamus, whose 7-year-old son Paul and 5-year-old daughter Neva started school Monday in Dallas, Ga., struggled to balance her fears of the coronavirus with her belief that her children need the socialization and instruction that school provides.

"We have kept them protected for so long," said Adamus, who said her aunt died from covid-19 in Alabama and her husband's great-uncle succumbed to the virus in a New Jersey nursing home. "They haven't been to restaurants. We only go to parks if no one else is there. We don't take them to the grocery store. And now they're going to be in the classroom with however many kids for an entire day with a teacher."

In Georgia's Paulding County, both of Adamus' children wore masks, though that is not mandatory for the 30,000 students in the district about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta.

In Gwinnett County, Ga., which has the state's largest public school district, more than 250 employees have reported testing positive for the coronavirus or possibly being exposed to it about a week before the school year is set to begin, according to district officials.

Teachers -- many of whom were not allowed to work from home -- began in-person planning Wednesday at county facilities, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

By Thursday, about 260 employees had called in to report a positive covid-19 test or possible exposure to a case and were excluded from work, officials confirmed to news outlets.

MARYLAND DISPUTE

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and leaders of the state's largest jurisdiction clashed Monday over whether private schools should be able to have students back onto campuses for in-person learning.

Three days after Montgomery County's top public health official said private and parochial schools would have stick to online teaching until at least Oct. 1, Hogan sought to invalidate the county directive.

Hogan, a Republican, rebuked Montgomery County for barring in-person instruction, saying local officials went too far in exercising the leeway he gave them to shut down businesses, schools and other activities amid the pandemic.

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In amending a previous executive order, Hogan said school systems and private schools should have sole authority to determine when and how to safely reopen; local health officials may shut down schools only on a case-by-case basis for health reasons.

Politics have infused the debate over school reopenings in Maryland and across the country. While Hogan has been willing to counter the president's message on dealing with the pandemic, the governor has long been an advocate of parochial schools. Hogan is a lifelong Catholic who attended a private high school, and one of his signature education policies is a voucher program, known as BOOST, that gives scholarships to private school students.

On Monday, Hogan said private schools "deserve the same opportunity and flexibility to make reopening decisions" that public school systems have had, adding that he intends to keep a "flexible, community-based approach that follows science, not politics."

LOUISIANA VIOLATIONS

In Louisiana, nearly 700 restaurants, bars and businesses were found in violation of the governor's coronavirus restrictions in July, according to records from the state fire marshal's office.

The businesses failed inspections for violations such as lack of mask-wearing, tables being too close together, large group gatherings, exceeded capacities and self-serve buffet dining, the records obtained by the Lafayette Daily Advertiser showed.

In May, Louisiana businesses were ordered to comply with Gov. John Bel Edwards' mandates as a condition of reopening, including limiting capacity, spacing tables to maintain social distance and requiring face coverings for employees and customers.

Edwards has since issued additional restrictions, including limiting bars to takeout and delivery, as the state experiences a surge in virus cases. His administration is cracking down on violators as the state, which once appeared to successfully reduce the virus's spread, now has one of the nation's highest per capita infection rates.

Most noncompliant businesses receive two warnings before more serious action is taken, state Fire Marshal Butch Browning said at a news conference last month.

The Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control has already suspended the operating licenses of four businesses that were found to have repeatedly violated the restrictions, officials announced last week. Another 14 businesses have failed two inspections, according to records from the state fire marshal's office.

Information for this article was contributed by Donna St. George, Erin Cox, Hannah Natanson, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Felicia Sonmez and Yasmeen Abutaleb of The Washington Post; by Jeff Amy, Denise Lavoie and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Aysha Diallo of Bloomberg News.

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